lhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, has has invited large manufacturers in aviation, defense, electronics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, heavy engineering and similar verticles to set up shop there, offering early-bird incentives including heavy discounts on land prices and financial grants and waivers.

In a massive infrastructure boost to Gujarat, the Indian mass-transit operator Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company has awarded an order of approximately Rs 579 crore (Euro 76.04 million) to the consortium of Siemens India and Siemens AG, Germany, for electrification of the 39.2-km Metro Express Link in Ahmedabad.

India is acquiring quite the reputation for construction! Major infrastructure projects in the country that have been internationally lauded include the Metro Rail, Chenab Bridge, Qazigund Tunnel and Eastern Freeway along with the Golden Quadrilateral highway network, port connectivity and national waterways.

Despite the variations in investment quantum across cities, there are some common threads which run through most of the Smart City plans. The most important one is around financing. Even after considering Government of India and counterpart funding from the state governments as well as the municipality, for most cities there exists a financing gap of at least 20 per cent of the total investment plan, which would need to be met through private participation.

A rapid transit system coming up near New Delhi is planning to be the greenest such transport system in the country, as reported. The transportation system will be the ´most environment-friendly´ metro project in the country.

The large land mass of the country, with widely varying topographical features across mountain regions, deserts, alluvial riverine deposits and rocky hill regions sloping into the surrounding seas, presents challenges to the planners in providing adequate transportation corridors for connecting the population spread all over,